I said, “Auntie, let me take your basket.”  She refused me.  I said, “May I carry your meal or your meat?”

“I don’t know you.” she said shortly.

A jolly man at the side of the garage heard me.  I said, “I’m all right, am I not” to the man.

He said, “Aunt Molly, let her help you home.  She is all right.  I’m sure.”

I followed the path ahead of her.  When we turned off across a grassy mesa the old woman said, “Here,” and handed over her basket.  I carried it.  When we got to her house across a section of hay land at least a mile from town, she said, “Push that door open and go to the fire.”

An old Negro man, not her husband and no relation, got a very respectable rocking chair for me.  He had a good fire in the fireplace.  The old woman sat on a tall footstool.  She was so cold.

She said, “Bring me some water, please.”

A young yellow boy stepped out and gave her a cup of water.  She drank it all.  She put the meat bones and scrap meat on the coals in an iron pot in some water.  She had the boy scald the meal, sprinkle salt in it and add a little cold water to it.  He put it in an iron pan and put a heavy iron lid over it.  The kettle was iron.  The boy set it aside and put the bread on hot embers.  She sat down and said, “I’m hungry.”

I said, “Auntie, what have you in that box?”

She reached to her basket, untied some coins from the corner of the soiled rag—­three pennies and a nickel.  She untied her ragged hose—­she wore two pairs—­tied above the knee with a string, and slipped the money to the foot and in her heavy shoes.  It looked safe.  Then the old Negro man came in with an armfull of scrub wood and placed it by the fireplace on the floor.

He said, “The Government sent me here to live and take care of Aunt Molly.  She been sick.  I build her fires, and me and that boy wait on her.”

I asked, “Is the boy kin”.

He said, “No’m, she’s all alone.”

He went away and the boy went away.  The old woman called them and offered them candy.  She had twelve hard pieces of whitish, stale chocolate candy in the box.  The boy refused and went away, but the old man took three pieces.  I observed it well, when she passed it to me, for worms.  I refused it.  It seemed free from bugs though.  She ate greedily and the old man went away.

We were alone and she was warm.  She talked freely till the old Negro man returned at one o’clock for dinner.  Notwithstanding the fact the meal hadn’t been sifted and the meat not washed, it looked so brown and nice in two pones and the meat smelled so good I left hurriedly before I weakened, for I was getting hungry from the aroma.

“I was born at Edgefield County, South Carolina, and lived there till after I married.”

“Did you have a wedding?”

“I sure did.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I married at home, at night, had a supper, had a nice dance.”